Eye Contact
by Realsmartz
Summary: Hitomi Kanzaki and Van Fanel try to master the art of silent warfare, expressing feelings and answering questions without words but by using, the eyes. If the messages sent are properly interpreted who will be the first to act? Let the battle begin.
1. So it begins

**A/N ****-** Hey well I know you guys are probably tired of the whole, girl likes guy, guy likes girl but they just won't tell each other thing. Well I know I'm tired of reading those types of stories also but I hope mine has a new twist on it. See those stories, or the ones that I've read…usually have it so that all their friends know or have hint of their feelings and inevitably try to help them get the boy/girl by playing match maker or in some other fashion.

But what if the person doesn't have that kind of help or support? What if they were in it all by themselves, pride too high to let themselves receive help. Or…they were just too shy to admit that they like someone. So any ways that's the basis for my fic. I hope it's strong enough to let this turn out alright.

Be prepared though, characters are somewhat out of character though I'll try not to stray too far…

**Summary**** -** Communication amongst teens is already particularly difficult within the fickle unspoken rules dictated by teen society. So how is one such as Hitomi Kanzaki ever going to stand a chance at achieving her goal of dating her long time crush when missing the most basic tool for communication, speech?

Watch as she and her equally inhibited target, Van Fanel, try to master the art of silent warfare, expressing feelings, questions and needs not by speech but through our most powerful tool of interaction, the eyes. The messages they send may seem clear to themselves, but will either truly grasp the other's meaning? And if by chance the correct messages are received, who will be the one to make the first move? Players ready. Rules set. Situation understood...

Let the battle begin.

**Disclaimer**** -** Obviously I own nothing pertaining to Escaflowne; all I own is this idea.

* * *

**Eye Contact**

**Chapter: 1**

_**So It Begins**_

Here I am feeling endlessly, hopelessly, agonizingly in…like. Woops that forbidden "L" word almost managed to slip in there just now. Oh hey, my name is Hitomi Kanzaki or Kanzaki Hitomi if you want it in the normal Japanese sense of naming. Right now I find my self in school (which I find useless by the way) body aching…longing for something, or rather someone.

It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what a 15 year old girl would be aching over anyway. Well incase the slower of you still haven't figured it out I guess I'll just take to the direct approach. I'm thinking about a boy.

Well thinking…? Yes, I am thinking of him, but I guess I failed to mention the stare part of my action, though that isn't really important. And so I continue to stare at the useless piece of mass sitting across class from me, going by the name of Van Fanel (Fanel Van…or whatever). Unruly, un-tamable mass of raven hair, semi-short and cascading over his face enough to cover his eyes, beautiful brown eyes, medium build, rock hard body, lazed attitude, yet cheerful, rock hard body, friendly, a real people person, the kind of guy you'd like to get to know…and did I mention rock hard body? He isn't _the_ most attractive of types and isn't the smartest of the lot but for some reason his very being just captivates me.

Now while my little analyzing session was going on I was still (seemingly) engaged in a very exciting conversation with my friends. I always wondered how I could talk about one thing while thinking on a whole other subject at the same time (I think it's a gift). Well any way, I'm still chatting it up with my friends when…you know what? I just figured out something. I don't have to tell the story; I'll let the author do that. Okay, so take it away, R.S!

**R.S** **- U****m****…thanks...**

_**And back to the story….**_

So within the confines of the class room Hitomi sits contemplating the fascinating piece of male art, who at this moment was absorbed in conversation with some other male students.

Hitomi, who is also seemingly engrossed in her own conversation, begins to ponder now on the complexities of life. Why? Why are there feelings of love and interest anyway? And why don't we have any control over who we are attracted to. To just randomly fall in……like, with someone and then have those feelings go un-noticed or even worse unreturned. The pain that rejection can bring, the absolute pain, the feeling of not being needed, not having your love returned is unbearable at least. So really, is love all that great? Her mind continued to wonder even as the bell had rung signaling the end of home room.

"Tomi."

"…"

"Tomi?"

"…"

"Hitomi!"

"Huh?"

"Girl…you were spaced right out. You Ok?" asked a concerned friend, a girl who's shoulder length hair shown maroon when hit by sunlight.

It would seem that at some point near the conversation's end, Hitomi was unable to stay in the limbo between her mind's thoughts and her conscious speech. And so, she had become totally unaware, exiting out of the conversation (without much notice by her friends) to mull over her thoughts without distraction. To say the least she had become dead to the world.

"The bell rang, come on, it's time to go to class." Hitomi blushed, embarrassed at her carelessness. And so she decided to do what she does best…play dumb.

"Oh?" she asked innocently, grabbing her bag from its resting place onside her. As they followed the throng of students leaving the class Hitomi jokingly added, "They really should make that bell a little louder; I mean…I didn't hear it at all." She then feigned a face of deep dissatisfaction for added theatrics. Rolling her eyes Yukari responded lamely at her friend.

"Any louder and it'll be a fire alarm, besides you were just too spaced to hear it. You really should stop falling asleep with your eyes open." Hitomi blushed lightly again, less from the statement its self, but more from the truth held within it. "Anyway it's the start of a new school year and luckily we have Mandatories and homeroom together."

"Yea, but Celena and Millerna don't have any classes with us both together _and_ they don't have home room with us. We're totally isolated!" Hitomi said exasperatedly, glad for the subject change. They take a turn down the hall, heading to first period.

"I know, but at least we get to see them at lunch. Oh! And Amano-kun is in our Mandatories also! So it's not like we're totally alone." Being the first to step into the class Yukari began the search for seats, unconsciously wearing that oh so familiar smile of a love struck teen, and as Hitomi followed her friend in she couldn't help but notice this and slowly a smirk began to play on her lips as she slipped into the seat next to the one Yukari had found.

"Oh yea, it wouldn't be a year if Amano-kun wasn't here, you two being such good _friends _and all." Hitomi notices Yukari's lingering stare at the door and smirks again. She leans to the ear of her distracted friend and whispers "Are you looking for your _friend_? Wouldn't want a good _friend _like Amano to sit anywhere else but next to you…_us_, now would you?"

Startled, Yukari's hair almost slapped Hitomi in the face with the force that she whipped her head around to stare dumb founded at Hitomi's glowing face. Yukari's face, in turn, promptly tinted a cute shade of pink.

"What are you trying to say?" she sputtered out. Hitomi was about to answer when something caught her eye. _Nice timing. _She thought.

"Hey Yukari, isn't that Amano-kun right there at the door." She said in an overly dramatic voice. Yukari's blush lessened as she folded her arms and refused to look.

"Like I'm gonna fall for that Tomi."

"No really he's right there, he's coming over." she said with even more feigned theatrics. Yukari turned to the front with her hands still crossed and eyes closed.

"Oh please, if you're gonna do something, try and make it original. I mean who would actually fall for that old trick."

"Ok, but watch what you say, cause he's right behind you." Finally tired of Hitomi's games Yukari whipped her self around to the general direction of the door ready to show Hitomi up on her bluff…

"Look. He's not…ooof!" was the sound that a startled maroon hinted brunette let out as her face came into contact with the starched straight white shirt of a standing, obviously male, figure. She didn't dare open her eyes; she could already tell who it was by listening to the muffled sniggering of her _ex_-best friend behind her.

"Hey Yukari-chan." the male greeted, his voice came to Yukari's ears and face in rippled waves of masculinity. The sound, with help from the odd placed contact she now had with the boy, like lightening traveled the length of her and back. _Oh no_ She thought as she felt that-oh-so familiar heat rise from her heart to her face.

Slowly, if not reluctantly, she removed her face from the person's abdomen then forced her face upward in a show of causality; smiling sheepishly she tried to fight away her blush and her embarrassment enough to speak.

"H-hey! A…Amano-kun." She managed to shake out, unable to control her stuttered speech.

Finally unable to take it Hitomi burst out into a fit of laughter, throwing herself onto her desk banging her fists against it, earning a few skeptical looks from the few people already in class. Yukari whipped around and shot Hitomi a look of inevitable death, which promptly shut the giggling school girl up; remnants of her laugh shown with little squeaks of laughter escaping at different intervals. Pleased with the result and also now having gotten over the embarrassment of the odd encounter, Yukari turned and with that so did her expression as she perked up to speak with the male standing confused, staring at the now sniggering Hitomi.

"Sit Amano-kun. I, I mean, _we _saved you a seat."

"Yea, get comfy Amano-kun we got a long year ahead of us." The now composed mischief maker said genuinely. Taking one last glance between the odd pair of girls he decidedly shrugged off his confusion and curiosity. Taking the seat in front of Yukari he started up a conversation and the three continued on chatting comfortably until that damned bell decided to start the class.

**………………………………**

The bell had just finished its wail to signal it time to leave home room and as the occupants of the class complied with its cues a dirty blonde haired girl exited amongst them; her face cutely tinted a glowing pink from an unknown emotion caused by an unknown catalyst. And as she left a dark haired boy sat and watched intently as her figure disappeared into the halls. The aforementioned Van Fanel (rock hard body…remember?) has now seemed to have switched positions with our green eyed maiden to become the one observing instead of the one observed, watching with interest the friendly exchange between his crush and her friend.

"Van?"

"…"

"Van."

"…"

Tired of being ignored, the agitated male decided for a more hands on plan of action.

**……**

"Ow! What the hell…?!" Van looked back glaringly, rubbing gently the sore spot now at the back of his head, "Allen, what do you think you're doing?"

"I _think_ I was waking up my dazed friend."

"What ever… let's go, we've got class." He said this with a slight glare placed in his friend's direction.

Like the girl he had previously been scrutinizing Van and his very blond friend followed the last string of students out of the room and in a contented silence the two walked down the corridor. Upon reaching the end they turned and continued in their walk. A time had passed and soon their steps slowed as a thought hit them.

"Van…"

"Allen…"

"What class do we have?" they asked in unison. The throng of students whose destinations were known walked around the now still standing teens as if they were mere pebbles in their path. Few though, raised questioning brows as they passed upon noticing the sheepish looks upon their obstacles' faces.

**…………**

Now a few moments later we find our two heroes rushing in the correct direction to their first period class; though out of breath from running to the office and back they still seemed to have enough breath to waste on insulting each other, aw…the beauty of friendship.

"Dumb ass." the dark haired teen managed to let out between breaths.

"Who's the dumb ass? I told you this morning we had to pick up our schedules." replied the tall blond equally short of breath. The two hurrying teens ran in long strides down the corridor, their athleticism aiding them in their haste.

"So what? If you hadn't decided to get re-acquainted with _every_ girl you fricken know, then maybe we wouldn't have forgotten to go this morning."

"Don't blame this on me. You could have dragged me away, like you always do, but you were too busy gazing at what ever the hell you gaze at and thinking about what ever the hell you think about, to remind me." Allen snapped back.

Making a sharp turn, the two picked up their pace nearing their class.

"Man, whatever, we both messed up ok. Let's just forget about it." And with that the two fell into a not so friendly silence. Soon though, Van decided to add,"…and could some one please tell me why these hallways are so God damned long!" Allen couldn't help but to chuckle at this. If there was one thing he could say about the bushy haired boy onside him, is that he knew how to dispel a bad mood.

Now two doors a head of them the class room door shone like a beacon in the hall way, sighing while slowing to a trot they attempted to fix themselves up a bit, sniffing their armpits for any foul odors to watch out for and tucking in anything that had come loose in their sprint. Seeing that everything was in the clear they proceeded to stand in front of the closed English room door. Can you believe they went through all that and still ended up in time for class?

So there they stood, and stood…and stood. I guess right about now you'd probably be asking the reason as to why the two still stood at the door. Well, because of their special predicament they had received a late slip from their principal and well…why get a late slip if you're not going to be late? And since the two hardly ever receive a slip for any of the offences they commit, they wanted to savor this moment of actually having something to show for their tardiness.

As one picked his nail and the other fixed his long hair the late bell rang, but only when it had ceased in its wailing did the two then decided it time to finally make their entrance. Now eager to silence any questions with a flash of their slip they coolly waltzed into the room.

**…………………………………**

In the mean time in the class room a girl sat impatiently, eyes shooting every so often to the door, mimicking the earlier actions of her red headed friend.

Through the whole summer and straight up to this moment Hitomi has prayed for Van to be in her class, and as she feigns interest in the introduction to English class B the teacher is giving she repeats her prayer over and over in her head, hoping to see if one of those empty seats belonged to that of her crush.

_"Please Dear God; I come to you today with the same prayer I've prayed for half a year. Please God, let him be in my Mandatories. For if he isn't I won't see him at all for the rest of my school life and I doubt I'll be able to survive school if I don't get a chance to stare at him at least once a day. I know you wouldn't want to see one of your faithful children die just because of eye candy with drawl…so God please answer my prayer. I don't have any Electives with him, so if he's not in my Mandatories I might never ever, ever get to see if he actually likes me too. Please God, I've even stopped cursing…as much, and I'm steadily improving. Please, if you can't do anything else for me, do this God. Please. Please. Please. All I want is Van…please…"_

Her prayer went on pretty much in that same manner. But sadly and to her horror the bell rang, signaling it time for classes to begin for real (the teacher began early because he assumed everyone was already in class) Disappointment was evident on her face as she gave a longing look to the closed door.

_Please__…_

"Ok, so I guess that's all of you. Now just say…" but the portly man was cut off as his class room door swung open to reveal two handsome teen males.

Hitomi looked up at the new comer, (she could only see one of them from the angle she was sitting) her heart now completely broke. The guy that just came in was Allen 'S'…something, she never did get the pronunciation right and in all honesty she didn't feel the need to. Sure he was handsome and would definitely make for good eye candy but he still was no Van. Her mom always said, why use a substitute when the real thing was so much better? She sighed heavily on the inside. Even God didn't think she deserved a break, didn't think she deserved a chance. Life sucks.

She looked down, starting the process of preparing her mind for a Van-less school career when just as she was about to go into point number 2 as to why her life didn't totally suck she was shocked out of her grief by one line spoken in a heart achingly familiar voice…

"Sorry we're late." The voice said, and Hitomi's heart skipped a beat.

She kept calm on the outside but on the inside her minds' cheeks were burning with the sheer width that her smile had taken across her mental face. Ok sure, it's not like he told her he liked her or anything but situations like this really only happened in movies and soap operas. Seriously…how well timed was that?

So hopping she was looking naturally curious as to what was going on in front of class, Hitomi brought her eyes up, half lidded, in a forced casual fashion. Her cool demeanor was soon broken though as Green clashed with Brown. She swore that her heart had fallen into the depths of her bowels as she stared into the eyes of her long time crush.

_Why the hell is he looking at me?_ She thought as he continued to hold her gaze. She soon though, fought down the initial shock of meeting his eyes and now challenged him silently, refusing to look away first; her competitive nature taking control. Their connection inevitably was broken by Van but Hitomi stared on still, confused but also triumphant.

_Oh well…_She thought, dismissing her confusion._ I have__ a full three years of Van Fanel; no one can__ tell me there isn't a God._ And with that thought in her head Hitomi continued to stare as Van and Allen took the only remaining seats up at the front of the class. With one last thank you to God, she finally felt at peace enough to _actually_ pay attention to the teacher, though she did so with an unconscious smile gracing her lips.

* * *

**A/N**** -** Ok so I had this story on my mind for a while and I finally made time to finish this chapter. I know it's starting off slow right now, but I have a good feeling about this. This is one of those stories that wasn't planned. I can see the ending, but I just don't know how I'll get there, so I'll be just as surprised as you are as this goes along..._if _it goes along, 'cause I'm really writing for feed back, so tell me your thoughts please. And thanks for reading anyway if you made it this far but don't plan to continue. Even if you are one of those people could you still leave a review and tell me what you think I should do to improve. All thoughts welcomed. 

Ok, so I finally got around to reviewing this, and I trully think it's a whole lot better, I'm gonna be doing this one by one with each chapter so I can get back in the grove and finally update this thing...but still school is dreadfully overloading me with work, but I shall trully try! Hope any new readers out there enjoyed this.

Ja minna!


	2. Of Bets and Battle Plans

**A/N - **Well First I'll say sorry for the late update. There's a whole bunch of crap that happend and I'm sure you don't want or need to hear it. So I'll just repeat and say how very sorry I am. I assure you though that from now on I'll try to get my update within two weeks the most. So here's the next chapter. I was finished with it for a while but it took a while for me to edit it the best that I could do. I know there are probably some more mistakes in there so bear with it please.

**Special Thanks - **This is to thank the people that took the time to actually review my last chapter **You Guys Freakin' Rock:- Dilan****du-is-My-Boyfriend, angel of new beginnings, ..., rukz,**and**Cev, **Just letting you guys know how much I appreciate it, and I really hope you guys keep reading.

**Disclaimer - **refer to first chapter

* * *

**Eye Contact**

**Chapter: 2**

**_Of Bets and Battle Plans_**

Now we leave our original group of teens to go to the other side of the building, to a class that contains their close friends. Though it may be a different class the atmosphere of the first day of school is resonating even in there with the feeling of…boredom.

"Why?" whined a certain pale blonde haired girl.

"Why what? Why is the sky blue? Why are we alive? Or the oh-so-important question Why'd the chicken cross the road?" suggested another blonde, her hair was a good ways longer than the first mentioned girl. Turning her head slightly to look at the girl in pain on the side of her she continued, "Am I close?"

"Not even,"said girl in pain removed her head from the palm of her hand looking absolutely tortured, "I was thinking more 'Why am I here'"….. "Millerna stop laughing."

"I'm s-sorry Celena, b-but," she took time to breathe, "but, you do this every year. In the beginning you're miserable saying school sucks, but by the time school's almost over you're whining 'cause you don't want to leave, or you say "School's over already?""

"I don't do that. Watch, I bet you this year my hate of school is going to carry on straight through the year." Millerna scoffed at this.

"Yea right, I bet it doesn't last a month."

"You are so on. Prepare to buy me a cool shirt at the end of the month."

"No prob," she agreed quickly. She then added, "Though I doubt I'll have to buy you anything." Blond hair falling over her shoulder as she leans closer to Celena's seat she says with an evil smile,

"But when a month's over prepare to finally spill the beans on who your crush is." Celena's previous confidence suddenly took a nose dive. Admitting who your crush is absolutely couldn't compare to buying one lousy shirt.

"Admitting who your crush is totally can't compare to buying one lousy shirt!" She said loudly. And lucky them, they were at the back of the class, and in classic clichéd style the whole class, as if rehearsed, turned their head to stare. Another downside was that one annoyed pair of eyes belonged to their extremely hot new math teacher. They tried their best not to swoon and say "You look so hot when you're mad" when obviously this was not the situation for the phrase.

"Celena, Millerna…" the teacher called in his extremely smooth voice, startling the girls. He had said their names with just a _little _too much sweetness. "I've allowed you to talk through half of my introduction already, but only because you weren't disturbing me. But if you two decide to start crossing into that disruptive barrier you are going to make it bad for yourselves _and_ the class because I will be forced to be a lot more strict, _with all of you_!" this part he said while looking around at all the students to make his point clear, raising his voice just enough to be intimidating, "and if it comes to that you all can thank these two pretty blondes in the back here for you good fortune."

Once again in a classic cliché the class turned around, only this time to glare. Watching this take place the teacher only continued after he felt the blondes were shamed enough.

"Now I know with me being new and so sexy," the whole class sweat dropped, "you guys probably believe I'm going to be a push over, but let me assure you that this class is anything but a bird class. I'm going to work your asses off this year, so it's best that you not start on my bad side. Everyone understand?" Like robots, they all nodded.

"Celena? Millerna?" he asked, delicately (and sexily) raising his masculine brow.

"Yes Mr. Kagoshima."

"Hai Kagoshima-san"

Feeling quite shamed both slid down in their chairs after their teacher's gaze was lifted from them. Those two really knew how to start of a year. With a bet, being reprimanded by a sexy teacher and earning the hate of the whole class, even their own friends. Millerna was starting to understand Celena just a bit more.

**……….. **

Now we find our two girls walking, relieved, to their next class. They are some of the lucky friends, they took most of the same Electives _and_ managed to be in the same Mandatories, the only downside to this year was that they were almost always separated from the other half of their group, Hitomi and Yukari.

So as they made their way a thought came to Millerna.

"Hey, so is the bet still on?" she asked. Snapping out of a gaze Celena looked at her blank for a second before she understood.

"Wha? Oh, well like I said, there's no comparing your prize and mine. The only way I'm gonna agree is if you put the value of your reward down or I raise mine higher."

"Well knowing you I'll probably have to take you on a shopping spree instead," _How did_ _she know?_ Celena thought, shocked at how well Millerna knew her, "But I'll take that chance. Ok raise your reward."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Celena asked, smirking despite herself.

"Positive." Millerna smirked right back

"Ok..."

"You're on!" they said in unison. Now that the bet was established all they had to do was wait and see what time brings them, first date, exactly one month from now.

**…………………………….. **

The bell for the end of first period had just rung and now Hitomi and Yukari race to get to their 1st floor class. Right now they had Math, the teacher there actually teaches senior high but was firm in his belief to stay in the class he started in and being the head of his division, he was allowed that privilege (Teachers that teach the senior grades are on the third and second floor, third being the highest floor.)

What's even worst is that though he is aware of the distance his students have to travel to get to his class he is also a firm believer of being prompt, so he takes no excuses for lateness to his class. So with all that said we go back to the girls, out of breath, speeding to their class.

As they go by Hitomi notices their friends, Millerna and Celena, walking and smirking evilly at each other. Hitomi's brow rose at this but still she contemplated whether to stop and say hi. Then suddenly the words _Mr. Branner_ went threw her mind.

"Come on Yukari! Let's hustle."

After sprinting down two flights of stairs and God knows how many hallways, the girls were well out of breath but as they reached the door, the built up tension started to ease as the two neared the door. They weren't surprised to see other students just getting off the other flight of stairs or the many that were still running through the door. They followed suit with Amano coming up behind and quickly picked their seats. This was probably the only class where all the students were in class before the bell rang, seated and partially quiet. The class sat, talked and waited for the bell to ring.

I bet you're wondering where is the infamous teacher. Well, he's right there in the class room, leaning back into his chair with his hands behind his head, also waiting for the bell to ring. His life's joy as of the last few years is to watch the panicked faces and heaving chests of the unfortunate students that had the bad luck to have a third floor class right before his own. It's a shame though, the students here in front of him didn't know of half the evil he could do. Oh how he loved to educate.

Hitomi sat slightly sulking in the back of the class, for her seat was no way in view of Van's so now she couldn't tell if he ever looked back at her or not. Now how was she going to find out if he liked her if she couldn't even see him? She sighed deeply in her mind not that brave enough to let her friends know of her problems. Only times whenshe was really stressing would she show it, sometimes in the oddest ways too. Personally she enjoyed slamming her head (as much as her skull allowed) against hard objects like desks and walls to relieve stress. Her un-naturally hard head is to thank for her ability to do so. No sir-ree she didn't have to think about slamming her head against something, she could do it. _Wait_ she thought, she really had a bad habit of wondering off topic. As her friends talked she looked up thoughtfully trying to think of what she was thinking about at first. Having A.D.D. really can be a pain sometimes.

**………… **

As a dirty blonde haired girl rushes into the class room followed by her friends and others an oddly silver haired boy watches as a raven haired boy watches the girl. He too, soon gazes over at her watching her for a moment contemplating whether to call the other boy up on his eye candy, he decides to just let it go. In the years that he's known Van he learned that the boy had an uncanny talent for day dreaming or gazing while never leaving a conversation. It was something that Dilandu himself had yet to master and it was just another thing Van had one-uped him on. Though they shall forever be rivals they're friendship was a strong one. Out of the four guys assembled Van was definitely the one he was closest too.

They're rivalry and friendship started from the seventh grade. They fought and competed over everything, sports, which both excelled in, grades, both were above average and most of all they fought over girls. The two had the un-luck of having the same tastes in girls; though they rarely crossed heads over it, when they had it created quite the scandal back in Jr.High. Both had confessed to the same girl onthe same day; this happened in the 8th grade so it really put a strain on their pretty new friendship.

That was the story of the year. It went through the whole grade, even teachers were intoVan v.s. Dilandu. Two cute guys fighting for one girl's heart. In one corner, Dilandu, poor but cute and a pyrotechnic bad boy, while in the other corner Van, a guy that sweats gold coins, also cute and eyes to kill, literally. One jokester of the grade even said that while Dilandu would bring her his one rose, Van would roll up later with a truck full. In the end it turned out Dilandu's sincerity won out over Van's money. That was to be the first and last time Dilandu won anything, Van swore to it actually.

And as they say time has a tendency to repeat, and like repeating fads so did Dilandu and Van fight over the same thing numerous times, but strangely and probably luckily, the topic of girls was something that never came up again…until now. Though they hadn't acknowledged it with words the two knew. Dilandu didn't remember when or where he had first noticed Van's attraction to a certain emerald eyed track star. In fact he wasn't so sure of when his own fascination of the girl started. But it's not like he was in love with her, he just thought she was interesting…but anyway enough thinking, he as well as everyone else knew it wasn't a past time he could indulge in for too long.

So after pretending to be picking his nails, supposedly bored with the conversation he seemingly suddenly decides it interesting enough for his highly craved for attention.

So what if he was egoistic, he was sexy enough to be allowed the privilege.

After awhile he actually did get into the conversation and was laughing along with the others but with it's annoyingly wailing tone the bell broke through their and other's glee, signaling it, finally, the beginning of class.

The class was quiet. With his arms still behind his head Mr. Branner took a sweeping look around the class at the students he would be torturing, um, teaching for the next three years; if they were unlucky enough to have him that long. Removing his hands he stood, a whopping 5ft 4" a Caribbean man, born in Grenada, living in Japan, he had yet to master the complex pronunciation of the Japanese language and had no plan to do so actually, it's what made his course all the more difficult.

He slowly walked from his desk in the corner by the window over to the end of the black board on side the door. With chalk in hand he stretched his hairy hand to almost the top and wrote with horribly quick speed, "Math". He turned.

"I am Mr. Branner, I will be teaching you for the continuation of this school year," he put the chalk on the board then slowly walked, hands in pockets, to the middle of the class. He smiled a foreboding kind of smile, "Welcome to Extended Math class, let's see who survives." Instinctively the whole class promptly gulped future equations already haunting their minds.

**……... **

The bell rang, Math was over. Completely opposite to the early rush to get there, teens leaving the extremely long period of math left with little or no energy at all. Either their heads were spinning from the fast talking Caribbean accent of the short man, or their eyes were burning from sleeping the whole period on the hard pressed desks. Most were in this state having given up on trying to understand the man. Hitomi happened to be part of the latter group.

It was now the fifteen minute break of the day, it comes after second period class. So kids were able to get snacks and drinks from the cafeteria or just revel in the fact that they were able to take their own slow time to reach whatever class they had to go to.

At this moment, Hitomi was walking by herself. After break she had an Elective class and neither Yukari nor Amano were in it, so they split up after Math class. Now Hitomi walks down a hallway of the second floor sleepily, eyes barely open. Unbeknownst to her is that behind her are Van and his crew of friends; though they were in different Electives it just happened that he was on the same floor as her for this one. So Tomi continues to walk groggily through the hall while silently being non-stalked by a brick red eyed hottie.

Then as she was passing by a random class room door, Hitomi finds her self attacked by a certain glasses wearing senior.

"Dryden!" Hitomi yells, now awake. She slapped him across his shoulder as he playfully puts his arm around hers. Being a head above the medium sized blonde brunette gave him this advantage. The two were interrupted suddenly though as the boys following behind were caught off guard by the sudden stop in traffic, they collided slightly with the laughing teens.

Hitomi without notice quickly looked back and gave an apology as Dryden moved his hand and they began to walk again. Not to much later she struggled to force herself not to do a double take, though her eyes did bug out a little, because behind her, the person that bumped into her, the person she said sorry to was non other than Van fricken Fanel. Man! She was really angry. The first words she says to the guy this year and it's an apology. Sighing defeated, she decides to take her mind off of it and just enjoy her company.

Dryden was a year ahead of her in high school but the two never felt the gap. She didn't know when they became friends but it was definitely time well spent. The two loved each other's company and could talk for hours together about nothing at all. When they had first become friends many had asked her if he was her boyfriend but it couldn't be far from the truth. Dryden was like a brother as she was his sister and they understood and accepted their relationship as such. People just like to make something out of nothing.

So the procession continues and now Dryden and Hitomi walk side by side chatting it up like they hadn't seen each other for years.

Hitomi sneaks a quick peak at Van, reaching the extent of her self control and notices him staring at Dryden with a less than pleased look on his face. Being the smart girl that she was Tomi processed the information quickly and quicker still came up with a form of action. An experiment if you will.

Her three year plan to see if Van liked her would now begin with this first observation. Operation "Get Van Fanel" has now commenced.

* * *

**A/N - **Ok, well that's the chapter. I hope you liked it. This is the type of story where I create as I write. Often times I myself have to read it over and ask my self, Where the hell did I get that from? So yea, hope you enjoyed itand I'd really appreciate it if you gave me some input. Bad? Good? Horrible? Let me know what you think, not like I'd kill you if you didn't like it or anything. And if you came this far but find that you can't continue with the story leave a review telling me what you didn't like about it. This is really to help me so all thoughts are welcomed. So that's it till the next chappie.


	3. Tickling Jealousy

**A/N -** Hey so I'm finally updating. With the whole computer thing, I ended up fixing it myself. It's true what they say if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, screw those computer programers. So any way, here's the chapter I hope it doesn't dissapoint you after all that wait.

**Special Thanks - **This is to thank the people that took the time to actually review my last chapter **You Guys Freakin' Rock:- Kida Satsuki, Rukz, Cnm, K. Higurashi, **and** Cev** And to those who reviewed my note, a real special thankz to you guys for understanding and I dedicate this chapter to you** : - ... **and** rukz,** thanks alot to all of you!

**Disclaimer -** refer to first chapter

**Eye Contact**

**Chapter: 3**

**_Tickling Jealousy_**

As he walked behind the cutely sleepy girl Van couldn't help but thank God for his luck. For almost two years now his life has been slightly Hitomi-less. She hasn't been in his homeroom for two years and wasn't in his P.E class last year. Actually last year he hardly ever saw her, it was the longest year he'd ever spent in school, he would revel in the few moments she walked by; having a chance to see her even if only briefly.

But this year was different. This year was a deciding year in their High School, tenth grade decided it all. Almost everything was final. Final in that who ever were in your Mandatories and/or Electives were the people you would be forced to spend the rest of your High School life with. The only hope you'd have of a change was in changing home-rooms each year.

The little Van in his mind did a few cart wheels and back flips as he thought about the three happily Hitomi filled years he would enjoy. Though he was sure she didn't like him, a part of him couldn't help hoping that they would get together….somehow. He smiled in his mind as he continued on his way.

But then the most infuriating thing happened….

"Dryden!" screamed his now awake angel…um crush. She was attacked blatantly in the hall by some over grown, glasses wearing monkey! Because of the "attack" she was forced to stop.

Surprised by the sudden stop Van accidentally bumps into the two and to his relief (though he can't figure out why) the pervert removes the arm that he had so casually slung around his girl's shoulder. As the procession continues Van stares (coughglarescough) at the back of the guy's head.

The guy was absolutely intolerable. So what if he's a year older? So what if he's got some height, he's only a few inches taller than Van himself. He was a known pervert, had a lot of girl friends and was known to drink and smoke. He wasn't even richer than Van. He continued to watch the brute talk happily to his girl, and missed noticing the side glance a certain green eyed girl gave him.

So why, Van continued to question in his mind, why was it so easy for him to connect with her? How did she become so close with him in only a year when Van had known her for more than four and he was still at an acquaintance level? He just couldn't understand. It's not like he hasn't tried to connect with her, he had, really hard actually. But it just never seemed to work out.

Actually he is kind of to blame for that. When ever they got into a conversation, he would choke. It frustrated him like hell that a girl could make him so nervous. He wasn't a pimp like Allen but Van, the sexy, mysterious, too good to be so bad boy did not get tongue tied because of a girl. But he did, and it's because of her, and he wanted to talk to her even more because of it.

He stared/glared harder at the guy that was grabbing all of Hitomi's attention.

"**_Well she had said that they weren't dating"_** A voice in his head reminded him.

"_Yea, but that was then and this is now. And that doesn't mean that he isn't trying, the little male whore, he doesn't deserve her friendship."_

"**_Don't you think that's a little harsh? And Hitomi likes him, so he can't be that bad a guy"_** his more reasonable half argued.

"_Yea, but she doesn't know him."_

"**_And you don't know her"_**

Van was silent.

**……………**

As they continued down the hall Hitomi began to panic. Although she knew this was a perfect time for an experiment she hadn't quite figured out how to actually go about it.

"…always had tickling fights…"

"Wait Tomi, don't tell me you're ticklish." Dryden cut in; forming a plan himself, depending on her answer. Catching the glint of mischief in his eyes Hitomi quickly tried to correct her slip.

"What? Oh! Me? Nooo…I'm not ticklish, I was tickling them you see, I'm not ticklish; naw, not me. Won't feel a thing." Dryden smirked, _Wrong answer_ he thought.

"Oh….No…"

"Dryden….wait Dryden, I said I'm not ticklish! Wait, Ahhh…hahahah…Dryden, haha ha ha…STOP IT!" But it was too late, Dryden had caught his prey and sadly Hitomi was it.

The two stumbled down the corridor as Hitomi tried to fight him off. But Dryden couldn't have that happening; he didn't want to lose such a fun toy. So cleverly, he brought his other arm around her waist to keep her in place. A benefit to this was that he could also tickle her on both sides while making sure she didn't escape his torture.

When a double dose of tickling hit her, Hitomi went into a surprised high pitched squeal of delight. Startling passer-bys and drawing many questioning stares from on lookers. But she couldn't care less, there was a more pressing matter at hand, trying not to laugh her lungs out her body, and stop the enforcer of her punishment. Wait. There was something else she was suppose to do….

_Aw Damn...Van!_ She shouted in her mind remembering her crush trailing behind her. Remembering didn't help though, because she still couldn't think of anyway to pull her little plan off. Little did she know that her question had already been answered and her subject? Prepped and ready to be studied.

**………...**

Huddled in a group at the back of a class, we find the other members of Hitomi's friends. Yukari, Amano and Celena were all in this class. Millerna had the same subject but was sadly put in a different class because this one was full. Of course being the humble one that she was she took the news without a big fuss, but her friends new that inside she was cursing and ranting all she new at the bastard teacher.

But that's just how things work out sometimes. Since its break she still had time to chill with them since her new class room was only a few doors down. They talked and talked and laughed as more students came in, dropping off their bags or sitting down and talking with their friends.

"Oh my god you saw that too?" Yukari said laughing.

"Who could miss it" Amano said "it was so obvious she might have written a sign "Have been rejected" on her head" The group burst with laughter.

"Oh my god, Oh my god" Celena said trying to catch her breath, "You two are too mean. Do you even know that she's sitting right there?" She pointed to a few seats on side of them.

Without any subtlety the entire group proceeded in turning around and staring. Millerna, being an exception since she was already facing the correct direction shook her head and crossed her legs.

"You guys have no subtlety, if she didn't know that you were talking about her from your loud speech, the slow turn and stare definitely gave you away." They turned back to face her then looked at each other and shrugged.

"What ever, she's my friend it's not like I'm talking behind her back. I already told her all this to her face." The rest of them sweat dropped.

"Yukari, I think you've been around Hitomi a little too much." Celena commented.

"Yea, that is definitely a Hitomi thing to do." Amano continued. Yukari put a thoughtful finger to her cheek and tilted her head to the side.

"Well I guess so, I was in her class last year and I'm going to have her for another three. I guess we just naturally took on some of each other's traits." Removing her hand she smiled. "But you and Millerna are no different. You guys do the same things all the time"

"We do not!" the blonds chimed in unison.

"Point made." Said Amano, giving Yukari a high five.

The conversation went on and a few minutes later the group startled the class with a roar of laughter. It would seem that Hitomi and her friends had a bad habit of scaring people. No other group could draw questioning stares as quick and as frequently as her own.

When the laughter had died down Millerna checked her watch and noticed that break would soon end so she said goodbye to her friends and went to her new class.

"Man, it seems they're trying to separate us as much as they can this year. It looks like we'll never have a class with all of us in it." Celena noted dejectedly. Yukari put a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry bout it. We're a strong group, a few classes separated won't make our friendship any weaker. We can take it." Amano stated proudly, smiling broadly at the two grieving girls. Processing what Amano had said the two perked up.

"Yea, our friendship is strong. We could be totally isolated all year and still be closer than those that see each other like, every day." Yukari added.

"Yea, I guess we do have a good enough friendship. Ok, we don't have anything to worry about. Why'd you guys even bring that up, being separated doesn't matter." Celena said, looking at them disapprovingly. The other two looked at each other tiredly. It seems like Celena forgot that she was the one who had brought up the sad subject. They didn't press it because Celena is one that would fight them to high heaven no matter how wrong she was.

"Hey doesn't it suck that we got Mr. Oshiro this year?" Amano asked, changing the subject. The girls accepted it gladly and once again they talked and laughed knowing that everything was as it should be.

**…………...**

To say that Van was thoroughly pissed would be the understatement of the century. Outside his face was calm as he talked a little with his friends but inside his mind was on fire. As the little Vans in his head went to work to douse the mental flame Van himself tried to help by calming himself to almost the point that he portrayed.

As he watched his girl being touched by the monkey and _enjoying it!_ He chanted in his mind "_I am not jealous, I am calm. I am not jealous, I am calm..." _Then, Hitomi sent out a high pitched squeal of delight when the ape encased her in his arms and continued his onslaught of tickling. "_I'm not jealous damn-it!"_

"Well would you look at that." An auburn haired boy said, "The little tomboy is getting freaky with her pimp in the halls."

"How naughty!" another guy said, and they (including Van) snickered amongst themselves.

To Van's defense he only laughed, he didn't say anything. This could also be a reason why he would never get Hitomi, because he was too much of a chicken to even defend her from his own friends. That would mean him acknowledging that he liked her. He wasn't particularly ashamed of his crush, but he just didn't feel comfortable telling anyone. Does that make any sense? He wondered.

But enough thinking, he couldn't stand watching the spectacle that was in front of him. He just had to think of something to end this open display of affection.

"Yea," the other guy started again, "They're so engrossed in themselves that they don't even notice us normal people." The group turned to stare at him.

"Engrossed?" Van repeated, raising a brow.

"What?" he said looking hurt, "I listen in Vocab…sometimes" he defended. The others still looked on skeptically but decided to leave it. Especially since the girl being attacked in front sent out another set of squeals.

"_Dryden, my lungs are gonna burst!" she said between giggles._

"_A strong runner like yourself? Your lungs are like iron. I'll stop when I feel satisfied."_

_He replied not missing a beat of his tickling._

"_You meanie!"_

"_Why thank you dear."_

Van wanted to puke.

"Hey do you think they even know we're still behind them?" the auburn haired teen asked. Van threw his bag over his other shoulder casually, feigning indifference.

"Don't know." He said simply, "Why don't I check." Using it as an excuse to stop the display Van did the only thing he could think of, he…

**……………**

Millerna had found a comfortable seat in her new class and waited half heartedly for the end of break. She looked around at the few students already in the class room and she sighed inwardly seeing that none were any that she could talk to. She had this strong urge to just throw her self across the desk in dismay, but she was too dignified to ever display such actions in public.

In her group of friends she is known as The Model, or Princess. It wasn't her fault that she was brought up this way. It wasn't her fault that she was born beautiful, and it sure wasn't her fault if guys wanted to do stuff for her. It's just how things are.

So she sat, alone, with nothing to do and no one to talk to. Sighing out loud this time she went to her sling bag and took out a note book to scribble in to waste some time. What she didn't know though was that a certain blonde had eyed her as he strolled in, and saw fit to greet her.

He walked casually toward her desk and then stood quietly beside her and looked at what she was scribbling. His chuckle startled her out of her concentration, but being the person that she was, instead of jerking her head up to see who it was, she slowly raised her head to meet the blood red eyes of Dilandu.

"How may I help you?" she asked pointedly.

"Oh don't mind me. I was just enjoying the view." Millerna glared at his comment. Dilandu only smiled and shook his head.

"No, you misunderstand. I meant I was looking at your lovely drawing of Mr. Oshiro. Oh and by the way, I think that the giant knife in his back is a great touch." He smiled more. Taking a chair from the adjacent seat, he pulled it closer to her desk and sat and leaned over to point at her book.

"But I think that a spiked chamber would have been better." Millerna looked at the paper intently, forgetting that this person wasn't her friend and was definitely parting too deep into her personal space.

"Hm…I guess so. Instead of one knife, he can get completely shredded in one move. But that would take the joy out of stabbing him yourself." As she spoke she drew stick illustration to show her points. Dilandu nodded his head in agreement.

"Yea, I can see how you would want a more hands on approach. It's like shooting someone and they die right away. Where's the satisfaction in that?" Looking away from the paper, Millerna turned in her seat, facing him and nodded slightly in agreement.

"Exactly. If I was ever to kill someone, especially if I really hated them, I would want to make it as long and painful as I could. That's why I think guns are useless. I'd rather watch a well fought fist fight then a gun fight any day."

"Yup, I'm always telling Van those that anyone can pull a trigger, Skill comes into play with a gun fight. But when its fist on fist, body to body, it's all will and endurance that makes the difference.

"I so totally agree. I mean, someone could be so totally weak in normal circumstances but give them the right reason and they could beat up someone twice their size easy."

"Exactly. I thought I was the only one who thought that."

"Yea, me too." The two then went into silence, staring each other down, scrutinizing and thinking about what just occurred. But one thing they both knew was that something changed between them, whether it was drastic or not, was still to be decided.

**……………**

"Ahem…" Van coughed not so softly in the back of the giggling school girl and her pimp…friend.

_Oh how original _He thought in his mind. Ok, so I'm sure some other people could have thought of something better, but Van couldn't so they could just take their good ideas and shove um up their asses. He still got a response even with his lame tactic.

Hitomi turned around and her eyes locked with Van. He could still see the laughter dancing in her eyes and he couldn't help but long for the day when he could make her that happy. His musing soon turned to rage as she quickly turned her head away and said nothing. Noticing this, the hyenas on the side on him started cackling.

"Ooooo, shut down." One said after regaining some composure. Van fumed silently but still managed to keep up is nonchalant demeanor.

"Whatever."

"Is mister mystery mad 'cause he was ignored? Huh? Huh?" the other guy teased.

"Just shut it. I wasn't shut down, you guys wanted to see if they noticed normal people, well they don't, your question answered."

"Yea, sure," the other guy said skeptically, he then placed a mocking hand on Van's shoulder, "Don't worry, there are other fish in the sea." Van slapped his hand off then slapped him coolly in the back of his head with his book bag.

"Spoil sport." He commented sourly as he eased the pain out of his head. The others just laughed more.

"Man just forget it." Van said lightly, finally calmed somewhat. "Here's our door, let's go." He added, glad to leave the scene.

**……………**

Hitomi raised a brow. _Did he just…?_ She thought still struggling with Dryden. Although it wasn't the most original tactic, she still got the response she was looking for. Van had responded and showed interest in what she was doing.

**First experiment:** Tickling Jealousy

**Result:** Positive.

Without thinking she had turned around to say something but then Dryden touched an extremely sensitive spot and as a reaction she quickly turned around to address the situation. She could have killed Dryden at that moment. She just sent Van the worst message a potential love interest could ever send. Rejection. Even if it was a mistake, that's the message her body sent, and that's the message Van got.

Finally getting Dryden to stop, him being satisfied and thinking her punished enough, she listened, while mourning over her mistake, to Van's conversation with his friends. His answers were calm but she could tell he was trying to keep his hurt hidden.

Inside Hitomi was banging her head repeatedly against some random hard object. She felt like doing it for real, but the area was too crowed for her to carry it out. She waved goodbye to Dryden and then went into her class. Though the thought was rather random considering the ironic both good and bad progress she just made with Van, as she found a seat she liked she couldn't help but think how damned long that hall was.

**A/N -** Ok, so I'm sorry about the crowding with the author's notes, FFnet won't let me put the seperation line so until that's fixed this is how it'll be. Ok about this chapter, I was suppose to comment on something in this but I forgot...OH! I remember now! Ok, so with the whole, Dilandu and Millerna thing, you know how strange things bring people together, well that's that kind of situation. You'd be surprised how much you'd have in common with people you don't talk to if you'd just sit down and have a conversation with them.

So that's all for that topic. I have mixed feelings about this chapter, I'm not completely thrilled with it, but I can't bring myself to change anything about it. So there it is. Well you know what to do now, review and tell me what you think. And if any of you decide not to continue reading my story, still review and tell me what about it made you loose intrest. So that's all until next time. I've already started the next chapter. Technically two sentances is starting a chapter !

Well by now you all know that I edit my own stuff and I'm not the best, so if there are any mistakes, just bear with it for a while, I'll eventually look over it again.


	4. An Enemy Comes Forth

**A/N -** Woah, talk about a long wait period, I'm sure some of you thought I died. Don't worry I live...Wait Don't Kill Me! I'm sorry, really sorry for the long wait, but as it turns out, I need a new computer, so until we get a new one I stole my Dad's System's Unit to use with our monitor, but the problem with that is that my dad's computer is really old and didn't have the connection port that I needed to log onto the internet, so we had to buy and get that installed, and I'm now proud to say that I am now fully on the internet and shall be trying with all my heart to update sooner than I have (though I had good reason)

So now that I'm done with the explanation let's get on with the show. Oh, and once again, I appologize.

**Special Thanks - **This is to thank the people that took the time to actually review my last chapter **You Guys Freakin' Rock:- ..., rukz, Kida Satsuki **and **K. Higurashi, **Thank you guys so much.

And too the new reviewers:- **RayneJade**, **tigger093061** and** Maeleene**, Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate your reviews!

**Disclaimer** **-** refer to first chapter

* * *

Sitting under a large tree in front of their school building just behind the entrance gates sits Hitomi and her crew only short two members. She and her friends talk casually amongst themselves when suddenly Hitomi's ears perk up. She hears the sound of… She quickly darts her head to the side and sighs longingly in her mind. A red Ferrari pulls up in front of the gates and as cool as ever the one and only Van Fanel steps out (looking all sexy) and waves goodbye to his dad as he pulls off. 

No, she's not part dog, it's just that she's practically stalked him with her eyes for so long that of course she'd be able to recognize the sound of his car. To her defense she isn't the only one that recognizes it so easily. Van's car is practically the school mascot, ok it may not be to that extreme but he, his car, his family, all are well known around campus.

She watches him for a few seconds more, and then regains focus in her conversation. Soon her missing companions join them and they fight, laugh and chill until finally the bell (that shall forever annoy) rang, breaking their conversation and separating them to their respectful home-rooms.

…………….

Van walks casually into his home-room class. Classes don't start for another hour but most students reach early to get some more chill time with friends before classes actually start.

He waved to his friends as he took his seat and caught up in the conversation. Among him were Allen and Gaddess. Gaddess was definitely more close to Allen than Van but there wasn't any animosity between them. They sat and chatted for a while till they were interrupted by another late comer.

"Hey guys!" the obviously female voice said cheerily. They looked up and all smiled.

There coming towards them was Sakura Kyoshi. She wasn't the prettiest of girls but she was very cool to talk to. Now when it came to body she was a whole new story. Long legs, good length velvety black hair, slim waist and pleasantly endowed in the bust area...though, that wasn't the reason they hanged out with her.

"Hey Kura." Van greeted as she took a seat on side him. Gaddess and Allen looked knowingly at each other. Van had done it again.

It wasn't his fault really, but he had this uncanny ability to make most girls fall for him without even trying. Sakura was no exception. Though they had all known of each other, this was the first year that they actually had continuous classes together. Sakura fit right in with their group, and after only a week of school you wouldn't have guessed that they had just been acquainted.

Sadly though, Van's charms seemed to be heightened for some reason because the girl stuck to him like glue. She tried to be cool about her infatuation but everyone knew, even dense Van had figured it out already. Oddly enough though he hadn't shut her down yet, which was rare, because he never thought it good to lead girls on, he wasn't a pimp like Allen, (had he mentioned that already?)

Though not as strong as with Hitomi, he definitely felt an attraction toward the girl. As they talk, and he assesses her he couldn't help thinking how easy it would be for him to just ask her out and leave Hitomi for the lost cause that she was. And even though the thought was too tempting for words one still small part of him just wouldn't let him do it to Sakura, he probably would never learn to lo-**like!** her more than Hitomi anyways. He sighed inwardly. Having morals can be a real bitch sometimes.

……………

After a full three periods without Van, Hitomi was having a bad case of with drawl. As she half hurried down the hall from her last Elective class she tried not to think about how she would be if she spent these last years without him. She shuddered at that thought. Deciding to discarding her rather depressing thoughts she over cheerfully walked into her two period class of Math with Van, and looked around to see if Yuki or Amano were there yet.

Her mood quickly deflated though, as she spotted the most sickening sight of Van and Sakura happily chatting like old friends in the front corner of the class. Playing off her sudden mood change Tomi kept her smile and walked, feigning cheerfulness, towards Yukari and Amano.

"Sup Guys." She greeted, keeping a strong hold on her facial facade. Finally noticing her Yukari turned around, also cheerful, to greet her.

"Hey Tomi, grab a seat before the slave driver comes." They laughed a little and Hitomi scanned around for her seat, but something was a miss.

"Um…Yuki? Where's my desk?" Tomi asked as she scanned the area in the back of Amano's seat. The two in turn both turned to stare at the empty space behind Amano with puzzlement. Looking up at her Amano answered…

"Beats me."

"Wow, how helpful are you." Yukari stated plainly. Amano laughed sheepishly. At that moment Mr. Branner had stepped into the class room, setting down his brief case and taking a seat at his desk to await the bell.

"Quick Hitomi you gatta get a seat before the bell rings."

"Yea, but the only ones are at the front." As the last straggler students rushed in the door, Hitomi knew that her time was fleeting.

"Them's the breaks, Tomi. Go sit up front now and next period we'll see what we can do." This Yukari said with little concern in her voice. Hitomi glared at the red haired she-devil as she made her trek to her totally isolated seat, dreadfully placed right next to Mr. Branner's desk. If Hitomi didn't know better, she'd have thought that Yukari had set that whole thing up so that she could be with Amano alone. But she knew better.

……………..

Amano and Yukari watched as Hitomi made her way to her new seat. Amano shook his head sadly for his friend's misfortune.

"Man, that's some bad luck right there. Now she'll be forced to stay awake _and_ do work." He shook his head again, "May God bless her poor soul." While Amano mourned, Yukari was snickering inwardly at Hitomi's "unfortunate" and "unexpected" seat change.

It isn't that Yukari meant for her to have to sit in the front, she just wanted some time with Amano, alone with Amano. Hitomi would get over it…eventually. Pushing aside any thoughts that might make her feel guilty Yukari decided to enjoy being with her Amano. Turning happily to the side she started up a conversation, gladly soaking in the view of Amano and listening eagerly to the lack of Hitomi's voice that entered her ears. _Ahh…It's going to be a good year._

……………..

There Hitomi was, sitting in the most hindering seat in the class, listening to the devil teach. And as she sat there reviewing over what had happened, something just told her to turn around. So she did. And watching Yukari laugh it up with Amano the little doubt that she had was swept away. She glared, and at that moment only one thing went through her mind…

_That little slut was gonna get it._

…………………….

Sitting with her desk behind Van, Sakura sat listening to the extremely riveting conversation that the boys were talking about, sports. Whoopee! She drawled inside her head. She'd never be able to figure out guys fascination with sports. Getting tired of pretending to listen, she turned to her girl friends behind her and started to chat.

It's always good to have a back up plan, as she's always thought. Even when it comes to love, there's always room for a back up. She knew that that's kind of mean to say/think, but nothing is ever sure in this world and to compensate for that one has to make certain _insurances_.

When she had come into their first mandatory class, she was glad to find out that not only where her old friends there, but the cutest set of cuties in the school also. There's, Allen, the night in shining armor that all girls want to have rescue them. There's the bad boy, Dilandu. His psycho pyromaniac tendencies both scare and thrill you, and as she found out, he was actually very sweet. Last and definitely not least there's Van. At first glance sexy defines his entire being, but after the initial shock of his sexiness you get to know that he's actually really goofy and he rarely let's you stop laughing. All in all, the three were powerhouses of the male species and in most quiet moments in class you can often hear girls sighing from the luck of having such cavity inducing eye candy in one class.

Sakura was one of the one's swooning at first, but being the person that she was she made up in her mind that she was going to get in their group if it was the last thing she did this year. And it actually didn't take that long, and it wasn't that hard either. All she had to do was crack a few well timed jokes on some poor saps to get them to notice her. After that they just started to talk to her, bit by bit, little by little. And here she is, a week later, able to say that she's friends with the three most desired guys in her grade.

_Life is good. _

……………………

_Life sucks._ Hitomi thought as she tried to stay awake and pay attention to the drabble that this man calls Japanese. She would definitely have to make it her goal to at least half understand him by the end of the term or she would surely fail this course.

Math was **not** a subject to fail.

She taped her fingers with one hand while leaning her head on the palm of her hand for a comfortable, not sleeping position. She perks up though as her sights set on Van. Hitomi then got a strong urge to bang her head on the desk for being so stupid. It would seem that once again her guardian angel had put in a good word for her with the big guy because another of her prayers was mysteriously answered.

_I guess I won't have to kill Yuki after all_. She thought smiling to herself. Her only problem with math before was that she was behind so many people that she couldn't see Van well enough to make any observations. And now here she was, sitting directly in front of him…well side ways anyway.

Just then Van turned and looked at her, seemingly surprised by her presence there. He quickly looked back and Hitomi tried hard to resist the urge to smile giddily.

_Oh and about the whole life sucks thing God, I take it back._

…………………….

"Dilandu's in your class?" Celena asked, "Man I'm sorry for you, that guy is like, really creepy. I can't look him in the eyes. I'm afraid that I'll burn from the inside out."…. "Millerna stop laughin'!"

"Sorry, but you're just so funny, and overdramatic." She slowed her laughing down to a giggle, "And he's not that bad." Celena turned to look at her like she was stupid.

"Are you stupid?"

"Hey!"

"I mean…This is Dilandu we're talking about, guy that tried to burn down our tree in the front of school."

"Yea, I know, but he's actually pretty cool." Celena's look didn't waver. She stared at her friend for a while until something hit her. Millerna caught this.

_Here it comes…_

"Do you…"

"No." Millerna cut off her question bluntly.

"You don't even know what I was about to ask you." Celena whined.

"Do I like Dilandu? That's it right." Celena was silent. Millerna chuckled a little at this.

"You're so cute Celena, and so readable...like a little girl." Celena pouted indignantly.

"I'm older than you."

"Yea but you act younger."

"What ever, I still think you like him." She stated as-a-matter-of-factly. "Wait, I thought Allen was your boy toy, or was that Dryden." Millerna rolled her eyes.

"There you go again, and doesn't Hitomi like Dryden?"

"Naw, they're just friends. To tell you the truth I don't think Tomi like's anyone right now. Last time she had a crush was on this guy from America when she won a trip there to train for track."

"Yea, and that was like, two summers ago. You think she likes some one now but isn't telling us?"

"Naw, Tomi tells us everything."

"Yea, you're right." Soon a silence settled among them as they continued typing their computer work. Still typing Celena turns to Millerna and whispers knowingly in her ear.

"Don't think I didn't notice the subject change, I _will_ find out later." Turning back to her work Celena left Millerna sweat dropping, embarrassed that she had been found out. Celena was getting pretty good at reading Millerna. She would just have to watch out for that.

………………………

Allen sat, between Van and Dilandu as the two fought over some sports teams, watching with amusement as the petty quarrel ensued. He opened his mouth to interrupt the two but smartly decided to keep it shut.

In actuality he's very surprised that the writer even took the time out to write a scene for him, since he's been thoroughly ignored for the last few chapters. It's almost as if his opinion on the happenings around him doesn't count. So now that he has the chance to express himself he would use his time to do just that.

"Hey Van, Dilandu about the…."

"Ok! Good day students, hope you're all ready to work!" their short teacher proclaimed, quickly shooting from his desk proceeding to the chalk board to start the lesson, about two seconds later the bell rang.

With deep scorn and hatred Allen slowly closes his mouth and turns around to face the front; his moment crumbled like a piece of useless paper before him. Although he thought himself too refined to commit such a nasty act as murder, at this precise moment, he had to admit, the prospect was rather tempting.

**(R.S – Sorry bout that Allen…) **

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**A/N -** Ok, so that's the chapter, actually I already have the other one written up and ready to update, but I can't untill I'm sure all of you have read this one. So please review so that I can post up the next one, it'll probably be the quickest update that I'll ever do so don't miss it by not reviewing, that's the only thing that's holding it up.

K, so I wanted to say that first so that you who don't really read the notes get that message before you get bored and leave. So hope you liked the chapter, I have mixed feelings about this one too, but just can't seem to write it any better. So yea, and I've been trying hard on the tense thing, but I still get confused sometimes. Well any who, still hoped you enjoyed it, and you know what I say every chapter, if you find that you can't continue my story please leave me a review telling me what turned you off to it. This is for my personal growth as a writer so all constructive critisim is welcomed.

Untill the next chapter, Ja minna!


	5. What's to be Affraid Of?

**A/N - **So like I stated in the last chapter, this is probably going to be the quickest update I'll ever do, so you guys are really being treated (well...that really all depends on whether you like this chapter). So ne who, I don't have much to say, so I'll let you get on with the chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

**Special Thanks - **This is to thank the people that took the time to actually review my last chapter **You Guys Freakin' Rock:- rukz, Maeleene, tigger093061 **and **K. Higurashi, **thanks to you guys for your quick reviews! Much Love to Ya!

**Disclaimer -** refer to first chapter

* * *

_Hallelujah! Hallelujah! _Went the choir of little Van's inside his head, for the lord was with him that day. This just had to be a sign, Sakura was definitely not the one for him. He began to show the slightest hint of giving up on Hitomi and there she was, right in front of him…well on side of him, in all her sleepy glory. 

He had looked at her when she first came to her new seat at the front of the class, but she caught him, and him being the coward that he was he looked away. But who cares about that incident, from the looks of it, that's going to be her seat all year. Wait, not all year…for _three_ years! In front of the rejoicing choirs a line of Vans tumble in joy.

"Hey Van." Sakura called from her seat behind him. "I can't see, but I don't want to move."

Van didn't answer.

"Van!" she tried again, this time he was pulled from his fantasies and noticed her.

"Huh!"

"I. Can't. See." She said to him as though he was slow. It took a while for his rebooting mind to grasp the simple sentence but when he did finally get what she was saying, his mind went into over drive to see how to use this to his advantage.

Now I guess when people do most things, others tend to think there is little thought behind it. Especially when it comes to the cutest of teenage boys, even more so the rebels, people tend to assume that what ever they do is because they just wanted to. Of course they want to, or they wouldn't have done it, but you have to give some credit to those (like Van) whose actions always (well sometimes) have a deeper motive, and took the use of actual brain cells to conjure up. Bravo Van.

His mind set to work, the little vans changing from their angel robes to adorn slack pants, suspenders and thick framed classes, as they all toiled away in specialized cubicles. _Hitomi is on the side of me. I'm on the wall. If I turn to face the board more that wouldn't be seen as weird, and even so, Sakura will move with me, they might think that I like her, but that doesn't matter. Mr. Branner's cool too so turning it shouldn't be a problem. Ok. I got it. _And amazingly in a matter of seconds Van was ready to solve Sakura's and his own problems.

"So what do you want me to do?" He said joked.

"Something." She said also in a joking manner.

"What? You want me to buy you glasses?"

"That'd be helpful, it's not like you don't have the cash to do that."

"Oh, correction, my_ father_ has the money, he just allows me the privilege of accessing it. Well, that's what he tells me at least." Sakura giggles cutely at Van's serious joke.

"Anyway, let's see what I can do." He looked around them, seemingly assessing the situation. Then as if something hit him, he snapped his fingers and walked over to Mr. Branner at the board, stealing his attention and stopping his teaching.

The class was relieved at the break in the torture, so when Van had finished his talk with Mr. Branner and the devil began his lesson again, groans of agony ran through out the class, though one voice was missing, for even though she had the worst seat in class, not even sitting next to the teachers desk could keep Miss Kanzaki awake. Even as the bell rang signaling the end of the first period of Math she still sleeps unperturbed.

Finally being able to have a real break, if only for five minutes, the students stood up out of their seats, stretched and talked amongst themselves; reveling in their free time. While they did this Van and Sakura rearranged their desks to their liking.

Their desks were on the wall next to the door, and they were the first two seats, so they just tilted their seats diagonally to see the board better. Or see Hitomi better, for Van at least. For Sakura, it meant that she had a full view of Allen and Dilandu while having Van in close proximity at her side.

The Bell rang and the students "joyfully" went back to their seats. Van though, was already in his seat taking in the full view advantaged of his newly arranged desk, he leans back in his chair nonchalantly seemingly paying attention to the teacher, while waiting to see what'll happen when Hitomi would look his way.

………………………….

"Hey Dryden, saw you chillin' with your track honey again at break." A random guy noted playfully as they walked into their accounting class. Dryden only smirked.

"She's not my honey, she's a sweet girl, and I like hanging around with her."

"There you go with your old man lingo. 'She's a sweet girl' Man bring it up to the new millennium will ya."

"If talking like an ignorant hillbilly is being in the new millennium then I shall gladly take that old man title."

"Man you're no fun." The two sat at central seats in the class and a girl, small in stature, came to sit onside them.

"Hey Teeny."

"My name is not "Teeny". Or is that a concept your_ teeny_ mind can't deduce?"

"Ouch, what's with all the dumb cracks this morning anyway? I can't believe I choose to call you two friends."

"Don't worry it's a mystery to us as well." The short girl, flipped her medium length dark hair indignantly and looked to the front.

"Don't be so hard on him Chibi, he's smarter than he looks."

"Why thank you Dryden, at least someone's on my side."

"…Though I didn't say _a lot _smarter." He and Natsume shared a laugh.

"You old people and your old people jokes make me sick."

"Mr. Hiroshima! Would you like to come and finish this new bill that I have on the board, since it's quite obvious that you are able to teach this topic since you're so blatantly ignoring _my_ teaching." Called a lanky woman, in her late 40's, to the disruptive youth.

"Naw, actually I think you're doin' a splendid job Tachibana-san. I don't think my input would be needed at this point. You may continue if you wish." Kiro said in an executive type manner. The class burst into laughter at the spectacle. Even Dryden and Natsume laughed heartily at this. As the class quieted down, using no words Mrs. Tachibana held out her hand holding the chalk, silently commanding him to shut up and come. Sighing he did as he was told.

After three minutes at the board, he placed his piece of chalk down and went casually strolling to his seat. As she checked over the large amount of work and numbers that he had worked out, without a calculator, her eyebrows rose slightly for everything was right. Not one off number. And all was silent.

"Eh hem, well, Good work Hiroshima, let's just try and be a little less disruptive in class, for those that actually want to learn something." She turned to the board and started to write, shamed at the turn of events.

Taking his seat behind Dryden, His friends turn to look at him skeptically.

"What?" he asked. Their stares didn't waver. _What's with all the silent language today_, he wondered.

"Look, over the summer my dad got me a tutor in the subjects I chose and it turned out I was pretty good with accounting so he had me help do his check books with the accountants for his company." He leaned back in his chair and placed both hands behind his head, "I could drop out of school now if I wanted to." He smiled widely and proudly at his new gift. Accepting this answer as truth, the two turned to the front satisfied. He in turn leaned in his seat to whisper…

"Ya can't call me stupid now, now can ya?" he said through a large grin. Natsume just sighed, flipped her hair, and turned slightly to face him.

"Stupid is as stupid does. And in your eloquent way of speaking, "You does still do stupid-ness" she said the last part using an over exaggerated hillbilly type voice. Dryden laughed at this. Sitting back deflated, Kiro slouched in his chair and crossed his arms like a little boy.

"I don't speak like that." Natsume turned to face the front, smiling.

_Damed old people_, he thought.

…………………………..

"_Tomi." A voice called out to her. She looks around at the scenery, but everything is blurred. She can barely make out a few desks and a blackboard so she assumes that it's a class room._

"_Tomi." The voice calls again. She gets out of the seat she didn't remember sitting in and walks to the door, at least where she thinks the door is._

_Things clear up as she starts to walk and she can now tell that it is a class in her school, and from the looks of it, either English or Math._

"_Tom…" the voice calls again, but as she whips her head around she makes contact with something hard, and yet soft, sending hers and the body of the person to the floor landing in a tangled heap. Rolling off of the person she and he groaned in pain. Looking over at him she forces her nerves to stay calm._

"_Van?" she asks, as he helps them up from the floor._

"_Yea, but man your head's hard. Did you get your skull replaced with metal or something?" Refusing to be embarrassed, she merely smiled._

"_So what did you want me for?" She guesses that this would be the perfect chance to win Van over to at least a friend status, but so what if this was Van. What? Now that he's talking to her, she should just suddenly act all lovey? He only smiled back._

"_Van?" he kept smiling._

"_Van?" still smiling. Getting tired, she decided to leave him. A conversation is no fun unless two parties are taking part. Suddenly his arm reached out and grabd onto hers firmly but gently. She looked to where he was holding her then looked at his face._

"_Let go." He did. " So, what do you want?" she questioned._

"_Oh yea! Sensei wanted me to come get you 'cause we're goin' on a field trip and we almost left you 'cause you were sleepin'." Then retaking his grip on her arm, he dragged her from the room and down the hall. Before she could even protest she was suddenly inside of a Bus, to God knows where, and sitting beside her was the same giddy Van._

_**Ok, something is definitely weird here. But who cares Van is next to me and I can feel his body heat**. Tired of suppressing her natural school girl feelings she takes a nice long, unnoticeable squeal of joy in her mind. She turns to talk to him when, a bell or maybe a siren sounds around the bus. She looks out the window to find red and blue lights flashing. _

"_Oh no, it's the cops, everybody hold on." The driver yells and soon the bus picks up speed and everyone is thrown back. Then they are mysteriously on a cliff side road with many winding curves._

_Though she was sure a situation like this called for more of a screaming response, every time she ever got the need to scream, the bus would jerk and either she or Van would go crashing into each other and her scream would turn into more of an ecstatic smile. Soon they were holding onto each other for dear life, to try and stop abusing each other._

_The bells kept ringing and the lights kept flashing until suddenly the sirens stopped and the lights morphed into one light, a blinding white light and this is when she noticed..._

"Damn I'm awake…" Tomi mumbled squinting at the bright over head lights. _What period is it?_ She wondered as she slowly moved her head to the other side facing Mr. Branner's desk. She then slowly moved her aching body to sit up. School desks, as she already knew, were not the best for napping. Raising her hands in the air, she leaned back, stretching all she knew until she felt her back crack, releasing all that built up tension from sleeping so long.

While doing this, unbeknownst to her she had caught or maintained the attention of three certain fine boys in the front seats. Her stretching showed some of her curves that her loose fitting school uniform usually left hidden.

Feeling more awake but not necessarily awake she leans on the desk lazily and looks around her. Turning her head to face the door, she meets the gaze of Van. Now if she were more awake I guess she would have flinched or something of the sort, but her mind wasn't processing much so as if she's blind she squints a little while keeping his gaze. After of few seconds of staring, she looks away to the board and tries to grasp the topic Mr. Branner was teaching currently.

Quickly going over the very long equation that was already on the board, it only took her a few minutes to figure out that she didn't understand any of it and that looking at it was only going to make her more confused.

Checking her watch she notices that only about 10 more minutes remained in the period, so she leaned to the side of her desk to get her bag and starts packing it to leave. As she puts her note book into her bag, she wills her eyes not to go as wide as they want. It would seem that after all that, Hitomi's mind finally began to function at a normal level, thus it was able to interpret with clarity, what she had seen earlier. And what she had seen earlier was Van Fanel, with chair turned half facing her, and staring at her.

She stopped what she was doing and took a side glance to Van's general direction, and to her surprise instead of seeing the side of his head or something her eyes immediately connect with his, as if he was looking at her for a while. She looked away quickly, slighty shocked.

_Ok, that was really weird. Usually I'm the one staring holes into him, what's with the sudden role swap. **I'm** suppose to be the stalker. Not him. _She notes in her mind, trying to quickly decipher what had actually happened while she was asleep to cause such a switch in his character.

"Ok class, I know this is weird, since I'm your math teacher," Mr. Branner suddenly says, rushing to his desk to pick up a piece of paper, "but they told me to give you notice that the Grade 10 speech competition is next week and we need one person from each school house to write a speech and present it." He stops, and continues to read silently to himself, as the class whispers amongst themselves.

"Ok…" he began again, "It says that a few people from each house has to recruit a person to represent their house." He stops and looks around the class. "Any volunteers?" there is a quiet in the class, but then Van, shattering the silence, throws up his hand and says…

"I'll get someone for Fanelia."

"Ok, very good. What about the other houses?"

Hearing this; Hitomi's ears perk. _He's going to ask me to do it. _She quickly comes to a conclusion. _I know that we are in the same house, and I think he does to. And I know he knows I'm good at Japanese essays, so he's definitely going to ask me to write. Man I wish I could bet with someone on this. I'd make so much cash. _Though it wouldn't count as a real experiment because there's no doubt how it will end up, she'll still counts it as legit, just then the bell rung.

"Ok, see you tomorrow people." And so the class filed out, happy that the class was over.

Getting up from her desk, Tomi could see from the corner of her eyes that Van was coming over. _What? So soon?_ She thought, acting like she doesn't see him. Throwing her bag over her shoulder she waits for Yukari and Amano to come to the front so that they can go to lunch. And as she stands there she feels Van's presence on side her, but she doesn't look. She hears him take a breath, but no words come out. Then as quickly as it came his presence is lost, she turns to inspect this and finds Van's retreating figure walk out the door with his bag in hand.

Hitomi frowns, _Coward_, she notes in her mind. What's so hard about talking to her? It's not like she's one of those anti-social "I'll bite off your head if you try and make contact with me" persons. So she can't figure out why Van finds it so hard to talk to her. And she refuses to use that tired old single women's excuse that men are afraid of strong women. That's a bunch of bull if you asked her. So in confusion she stares at the door where Van's figure is long gone, trying to come to a reasonable conclusion to what happened.

"Hey, Tomi let's go. Lunch is the only period I'd be seriously pissed being late for." Yukari says as she walks past her dazed friend. Amano follows close behind Yukari but stops at the door to stare back at Hitomi.

"Hey, you comin'?" he asks gently, a quiet "Are you Ok?" question hidden behind his words. Hitomi snaps from her state and smiles a small smile to Amano.

"Yea, yea I'm coming"

* * *

**A/N -** So that's it, hope you all liked it. To be totally honest, I have no idea when I'll be able to update this chapter, cause well, not only do I have to type it up, but the whole checking over process takes really long for me, plus I have a powerpoint project to do for computer class so that's going to be taking up most of my computer time. So yea, I'll try to get it to you by next week, but I'm not promising much. 

Well, since all that's said, I just have to ask you again that if you find yourself unable to continue reading my story, it would be of great use to me if you would send me in a review or message the reasons as to what turned you off to it. Feedback is very important to me, as it is to assist me in improving my writing.

So until the next chapter, hope you all have a good week,

Ja Minna!


	6. Just Another Day

**A/N - **Hey what up guys, I know I haven't updated in a while so I won't waist time in the first notes, so read on and I'm sorry...you'll see why by the time this chapter ends...- -

**Disclaimer -** Refer to first Chapter

* * *

**Eye Contact**

**Chapter 6**

**_Just Another Day_**

Weeks had past and soon the students found themselves comfortably into the groove of the school year. Now ending the second month of school, they struggle to keep their spirits high as the pressures of school start to weigh upon them.

Though the pressures may be too much for others, there are a few who choose to ignore them or are just able to handle them better. Of course amongst those few lay Hitomi and her group. We catch up with them as they walk through the halls, all just leaving a mandatory class to travel to their favorite period, Lunch.

"Man, this term isn't over yet?" Hitomi complained resting her hands atop her head in a lazed manner.

"Nope." Amano answered plainly.

"Boy, aren't you always such the helpful one." Tomi drawled out, giving him a side glance.

"Well, I don't like to brag, but it's just a skill I've acquired over my long years of training."

"Oh? And what type of training did you do?" Yukari asked in the same drawl manner Hitomi had.

"Well nothing special. But man, I gatta say that life's never been the same since graduating from "State the Obvious Academy""

The group's conversation drawled on in that manner for a while, with a few giggles managing to slip into the "serious" conversation every now and again. Passing by a corridor the three stop to wait, predicting the arrival of their missing members. And as if timed, two giggling blonds come walking down the tiled hall floor. Upon spotting the three they transitioned into a slow trot to meet them.

Now, with all members accounted for they started upon deciding on a spot to enjoy their lunches.

"Why don't we just go to the Caf, we haven't eaten in there in like, forever." Celena suggests. Quickly shutting down that idea Millerna replied,

"Oh, please. That overcrowded little room. I'd sweat my hair straight just by walking through the door."

"Oh please." Celena mocked, "You and your ever present wind would stay cool in the Sahara dessert." The others laughed.

"Whatever." Was Millerna's response, accented by a theatrical flip of her long, naturally curled blond hair and seemingly from no where, a light breeze came and blew her hair further out for a greater emphasis. Pointing at the phenomenon, Hitomi said,

"Oh my God, you can't tell me you guys didn't see that." The others nodded in agreement, and she continued to comment,

"I mean, seriously where the hell does that wind come from. We're in a freakin' air conditioned school. The air is still! I'm telling you, it's her model instincts." To prove her "seriousness" Tomi folded her arms and nodded her head as if her statement was trully profound.

"Puh-lease, model instincts don't cause wind." Celena stated smartly

"Finally _someone_ starts talking some sense." Yukari sighed out.

"Exactly. Model instincts cause guys to flock to you. Duh, everybody knows that." Celena finished…not so smartly. With her previous statement now crushed and crumbled to the ground like rubbish, Yukari exasperatedly leaned her head against Amano's arm.

"You people are hopeless, absolutely hopeless." They all just laughed at her and her distress, the three blonds turning to give each other knowing looks.

They continue on in an aimless trek through the halls until, finally deciding on where to eat. They walked, feeling quite dumb for wasting so much time in thinking, towards the yard to sit under their favorite tree. It was then that Hitomi remembered she had forgotten something in the computer lab. Saying her quick good bye she left her bag with Amano, (ok, threw it on his shoulder) and rushed off back into the school.

……………………….

Feet pattering softly on the tile of the empty hall Hitomi cursed herself silently at her forgetfulness. It also just happened to be her luck that their computer lab was on the third floor. _Stupid friggin'… _she swore, as she quickly grabbed her note book and text book from on side her workstation. Stepping into the corridor, Tomi sighed deeply thinking of the distance she would have to travel in order to reach her food. And in fact, if food hadn't been at the end of that sentence she probably would just go to her next class and sleep till the period was over.

With new initiative, she made it down to the second floor in good time. Too lazy to keep up her former pace though, Hitomi lazed past the Cafeteria doors, noise from inside, not able to be contained by the swing doors, hit her ears painfully as she passed. She quickened her pace, swearing to God she would be deaf by the end of the hall.

Not really paying attention as she made her way pass the room of zoo animals, Hitomi bumped softly into a soft/hard object. _Soft/Hard?_ She thought shaking her head softly then looking up to be stared down to by half angry, half amused eyes. Not being one to back down easily, after the initial shock, Hitomi stared bored into the beautiful red eyes of this person.

"Watch where you're going Kanzaki." The owner of the eyes growled out slightly. His intent, obviously, was to be intimidating. His stare would send most people quivering in fear, his glare even made 12th graders pee their pants (this is a proven fact). So imagine how put off he was when a girl, in his own grade, didn't even blink under his stare, which was intensified still by the fact that he stood over her by at least a head.

The two stared at each other for a while, luckily for them no one else was in the hall at that moment. Hitomi soon got tired of their little staring game and so broke free of the beautiful eyes' hold and continued her trek to her lunch and friends (though mainly her lunch), leaving an intrigued pale blond to stare behind her.

………………………………

Inside the four walls of the bustling zoo or "cafeteria" (as some call it) grades of every kind gather and converse about the dealings of the day, week and year. Separated by invisible territorial lines the grades were placed in order of arrival.

At the doors facing each other on either side the room, near the garbages, and sitting at the oldest tables, were the new juniors, as you move further to the back of the room, the grades got higher and with it, the table conditions were better. This order, of sorts, was not stipulated in school rules but it was a rule none the less, one that all followed with out question. When the next year came, automatically the years advance to take their new seats, then forcing the incoming juniors to place themselves obediently in the front. Actually with this "rule" in place it was very hard for one not to find a seat, (unless they were an outcast in their own grade) thus escaping any school wide embarrassment of sitting at the wrong table on the first day.

Moving closer to the back of the room, we find a group of well groomed teens sitting and chatting amongst each other. Amongst these an attractive brick red eyed young man sat thinking, and chatting at the same time. His mind troubled from various happenings at the beginning of the year he decided, not so long ago to deal with it, by just forgetting it. But as flashes of blonde and green creep up from the depths of his mind it became quite clear to Van that this problem was going to be a challenge to forget. Breaking him from his failed attempts to conentrate on not concentrating on a certain someone, a soft hand was placed on his arm and a feminine voice spoke to him.

"Van." it said, he turned to look into the half attractice face of Sakura.

"Yea." he answered as if he was listening the whole time.

"So what's your answer?"

"Huh? Oh...um, s...sure?" he answered a little skeptical to what the question had been. A splitting squeal broke through the noise of the zoo. Van cringed at the sound wondering if it that was a good squeal or bad squeal. _Girls..._ He drawled out in his mind. Strolling in from behind them, having just caught the last bit of of the ultra sonic sound that came from the girl, Dilandu squinted painfully and said,

"Ok, where's the rat?" the others were late to answer, all trying to rub their hearing back into frequency.

"No rat, I'm just happy." Sakura replied to the blonde, still with a large smile plastered on her face. _Oh that's what it was..._Van thought at the same time that Dilandu said

"Oh that's what it was..." taking a seat on top the table to face the group.

"I don't know what she's all excited for anyway. Van only said that he'd take her to see that sapped up movie that's out now." Allen commented on, not really interested and very pissed because her squeal had made him drop his last piece of snicker bar on the floor. He looked at the fallen chocolate forlorned.

"Don't hate on "Walking on a Breaze before the Sunset" and anyway, what I can't believe is that she's squealing like Van is cute or something." A brunette, commented. Van turned to her looking absolutely offended by her comment.

"Well I never..." he said in a huffed up hauty tone, his actions prim like a high society snob.

"...will be cute?" the brunette offered as a possible answer.

"...will have children?" Dilandu chymed in as well.

"... will be as gorgeously endowed and as well versed as Allen." of course this came from the arogant blonde. Now gaining intrest in the converstaion the others in the group started to add their thoughts in and soon they had shut Van out all together and started talking about the ebony haired boy as if he weren't there. At this point Van was trully hurt and looked accordingly.

"Ok, Ok, I get it...SHUT UP!!" he roared over their voices, eyes burning with anger and embarrasment. They stared at him for a shocked second only to completely ignore him again to continue in their discussion. _Some friends..._He thought darkly.

* * *

A/N - Hey guys, yea I know, I know, long time no see. And I'm really sorry. Look, I've been having some problems um...with stuff and it seriously just knocked me face first in the dirt off of my previous high. It's taken me a while to get back up, and I'm still not completely back up to full form so, we'll just have to see how it goes.

OH, and I want to appologize for the crappiness of this chapter. I feel that it should have been longer and with a little more substance but for some reason I just can't find a way to add on or subtract form it. I think it's just my glum mood but what ever it is, I'm sorry for it causing you to have such a crapped up chapter. With all that's in me I promise the next one will be a whole lot better. I'll be getting back into the plot and you'll get to see what the out come was of Hitomi's latest experiment.

So I won't be asking for reviews this time around. I mean feed back is welcomed, but I'd understand it if you guys thought it right to punish me for this late and crapped up update. So fire away, flame me all you want. I diserve it. So untill the next update I bid you all fare well

Ja minna!


	7. Back In The Game

**A/N- **Hey guys long time no see! Sorry, so very sorry. As of now I am officially not a high school student anymore, and so my time has finally been cleared up well sorta...since I kinda have a job and stuff. But any way, I haven't forgotten about this story and here is some of what I've been working on. This is only half of the chapter really but I wanted to put something up so that you people wouldn't think that I died or something.

**Special Thanks- **I'll add my thanks when I update this chapter again. So to all of those who know that they reviewed I'll just give a general thanks to you all, you all will be specially thanked later k!

**Disclaimer- **refer to first chapter_  
_

* * *

**Short Review of the Story thus far**

So far, Hitomi and Van have had little to no break through in each of their hidden desires to become a couple. In their classes Millerna had been seperated from the groups and when left to her new class found a friend in the most unlikely of personsm pyrotechnic freak Dilandu. _If there was anything else I can't remember right now, hope that helps though, or you could just go and real the whole thing over...which I'm sure none of you would want to do. _

So that's it, On with the story.

* * *

**Eye Contact**

**Chapter 7**

**_Back in the Game_**_  
_

_Darkness, seemingly infinite around me, I turn not sure if my eyes are opened or closed to "look" at the space surrounding me. There is nothing. A resounding feeling of emptiness fills me as I search for something to bring proof to my own existence. It is as if I'm standing in a void, not sure that I'm standing at all. _

_But then there is a warm glow, I feel it before I see it as it radiates to the right of me. Turning quickly, surprised by the change, my vision is impaired momentarily, eyes unaccustomed to the added color. _

_The light, its glow, brings perspective to the once darkened area, top and bottom now recognized. As I stare longer, not foolish enough to rush into what might be a trap, or a figment of my imagination, the light being produced from nothing more than my mind's need for change, I soon come to recognize within the glow a figure._

_A sense of familiarity resonates from it, and I become curious of its origin and its actual being. I stare, and as if my eyes become the lenses of a well built camera the distance begins to lessen in frames as I stare on. As the form seemingly comes nearer, its features become clearer and my breathing stops._

_**Van**__. He stands there, far from my reach, standing in all his masculinity and wonder staring at……me! As I soon notice. My heart beat races and yet I am calm. Just as I am about to walk to him, before me, crowds of girls appear to block my way, their backs facing me. Now my once clear sight of my raven haired, wild eyed, dream Van is blocked and a sadness arises from within me. _

_My eyes downcast I find no reason to face the hopelessness that is now before me and I glance back into the darkness that had once surrounded me. Its void, and as I stare deep within, it begins to seem more comforting than the light facing me and its cold call, one that I had formally ran from began to seem more and more inviting, enticing even. Its emptiness similar to the coldness and loneliness felt deep within my chest. _

_I step towards the darkness, as if entranced, called by the mass of black within it. But as I make my way towards the place I once was I feel a warmth from behind and I turn my head to look. There in front of the crowds of girls I felt more than I saw, Van's stare still upon me. This time his glow was angrier than before, its warmth and light coming in waves of intensity. _

_Soon I find my breath leave me again, as he begins to walk forward, eyes never leaving my form. He soon comes to the first line of girls and I stare on as he makes his way. He……_

Her eyes flash open, and her dream dissipates in a flash of bright light. It always happened like this. At 6:30 every morning her eyes open whether she likes it or not. That's what happens when your body is trained. Groaning as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling she thinks back to her dream, understanding immediately the statement that it was making. But what always perplexed her about dreams and what also kept her from ever taking to heart their hidden meanings is the fact that she had no idea if the dreams were fabrications of her love struck mind or actual signs sent from some greater being who knew all and saw all.

Deciding to drop the round about topic of "what is" she decided to just get her lazy self out of bed and do something.

She decides this, and in all her mind she knows she should do it, but her body seems to be rejecting her brain's commands. _Move. Get up. You have to get ready for school. _She tried to coax herself, but at the mention of school her body's will seemed to strengthen as the force at which she was held down seemed to greaten in power.

She openly sighed, having no more energy to argue her body's refusal of movement. Relaxing her head into her pillow she blinks slowly, just enjoying the quiet of her room, the darkness that surrounds her the brief period where there is nothing but time. Her eyes close one last time and she finds herself dreaming, where as she is in control of her dreams and immediately as her top lid meets the bottom the picture of her mind's torment flashes before her eyes._ Van._

In animes she always thought it annoying how the love struck girls would always keep saying the name of the guy they liked, in seemingly useless situations. Nothing else, just say their name. Sometimes a whole scene would be about people sighing and calling someone else's name. But now that she really thought about it, she herself did the same thing. In her mind, in those little moment's reprieve, she always found her self sighing mentally and calling Van's name. This revelation she found quite sickening and wondered what type of power Van had, to hold such command over her.

Her eyes popping open once again, she stared at her clock to find it five minutes to seven. Seeing this, her eyes widen, and her body's lazy hold is quickly broken as she darts from her bed and into the shower.

As she showers she thinks to herself angrily, furiously scrubbing her short blond locks. She did this same stupid ness every morning, she would wake up in time, but then be too lazy to get up and so spent up to an hour just thinking about Van. She was seriously making herself sick with how mushy she acts about Van. And as she lets the shower's warm waters beat the tension and shampoo out of her hair she continues to mentally stab herself for her daily girly actions.

…………………………………

A beautiful morning, with hint of the sun's light seemingly painted amongst the scattered clouds, bringing warm color to the sky as it runs the last traces of night away. And with this wonderful scenery, that most rarely see because of late awakenings, one lone figure jogs steadily along the path of the school's track, his bouncing silhouette casting long shadows along the grassy field.

It might seem strange for a teenage boy to be up and about so early in the morning but this is no ordinary teenage boy. He is one with a mission, one with a plan, one that refuses to be acceptable and always aims to be great. And a part of being great is staying conditioned, thus the early start each morning. And luckily for him the school's locker rooms are open early for athletes who are willing to train, not a bad setup in his opinion.

As he finishes his last lap, slowly jogging to wind down from the long morning of training, his mind begins to drift off in an oh-so familiar direction, one leading to visions of dirty blondes and eyes of emerald. He sighs in frustration thinking on a past scene.

_He couldn't believe himself. He had a perfectly good opportunity and he got scared and fled. Man! All he has to do is ask her a simple question. What's so different about this situation to cause him to feel such anxiety? The answer was obvious even to a guy as dense as he was. _

_As he talks comfortably with his friends, the teacher of the class out sick…or something, he has an inner battle on how to proceed. His eyes shoot over to the direction where a reading Hitomi sits quietly, an obvious contrast to the anarchy around her. Even her close friends were engaged in some sort of conversation. He smiled slightly, seemingly over something Dilandu had said, and finally decided to just get it over with._

_Slowly he retracts himself from the conversation and makes his way towards his target. Within his mind a submarine passes slowly just beneath the cold waters of the artic as the chibi Van commander is given word of the current situation. __**"Target sighted!"**__ one says adjusting the scope. __**"Good" **__The commander answers, __**"Course set! Move Forward!"**_

_As he approaches he starts to rethink his reasoning. __**No, **__He reprimands himself. This was the same destructive path he took last time that lead to him missing a good opportunity to talk to Hitomi. This time he would not allow himself to sabotage…well himself. _

_Finally within range……um close to Hitomi, he resists the urge to stereotypically clear his throat in his shy state. _

_Once again he has to wonder what kind of magic Hitomi holds on him. To be able to make him lose all sense of the cool that he had spent so many years attaining, she was definitely something special. _

_So taking a position beside her he finally finds his voice and says…_

"_Hey" How intelligent…he thought to his self dully._

_He tried not to look surprised when Hitomi quickly averted her eyes from the pages of her book to meet his own. Though his shoulders did twitch slightly in reaction to the shock, he prayed she hadn't noticed. One of the biggest rules in a cool guy's handbook is to never let a girl know of the power she has over you, if this rule is ever broken all is lost._

"_Huh…Oh, Hey"_

"_Yea, um so you're in my house right?" Another brilliant line…_

"_No" Hitomi answered quickly, and went back to her reading. Van was taken aback by her abrupt answer to a question he had yet to ask._

"_Do you know what I'm going to ask you?" he said slyly regaining a bit of his cool. And without looking up from her book Hitomi coolly answers back._

"_You want me to enter the essay competition ne?" He didn't know what to say._

_So after staying in an awkward silence (at least awkward for him), for a few seconds Van decides to leave silently. But just as he was about to slink off, seemingly unnoticed, Hitomi's voice stops him._

"_Ne, Van. Why don't you enter, you get good grades in Japanese right?" she said this putting down her book and looking up at Van flashing him a deadly cute smile. _

_Van fought down the blush that burned threateningly beneath his skin. In his mind a group of chibi Vans, now on a freighter boat, were skuttering around in a frenzy calling out "Mayday! Mayday! Abandon ship!" right before crashing into an ice burg, splitting in two and burning as it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Van finds himself speechless and extremely embarrassed for some reason and all in his mind the only thing he could think of was to escape. And escape he did._

"_Naw…anyway, I'll go check some one else. See ya." And with that said he smoothly(and hastily) turned and walked back to his safety zone, his comfort…his friends. If he had maybe looked at Hitomi before he "escaped" he would have seen the obvious drop to sadness and evident disappointment that filled her eyes._

_But he didn't look back._

Van dropped exasperatedly onto the dew dampened grass of the field, frustrated to death with himself. Why was it so hard. Why? He thought back to that moment and remembered how his heart had quickened when Hitomi had flashed him that smile. But why did he react so. He's made many cute girls, actually ones that were cuter than Hitomi by basic standards smile at him. He made them laugh and giggle easily with his wit and charm. But he can honestly say, that none of them, even the few that had been his girlfriend, had ever had such a strong effect on his body.

He closed his eyes and sighed long and loud, happy for the solitude of the empty field. He'd just have to try again. No man should let a woman control him, even if it was indirectly. So as he lay there, allowing the cool morning breeze to blow the sweat off his body, he allowed himself to freely wonder about the possibility of Hitomi.

…………………………………………

"God I just can't believe it!" Millerna exclaimed, seated comfortably and trying hard not to laugh uncontrollably.

"Shhh…." Celena tried to quiet her loud friend as the two sat alone waiting for the other members of their group to arrive. Trying to regain her composure, Millerna took a deep breath fanning the heat away from her face caused by laughter and then swallowed any last giggle that might have made its way up to prevent her from speaking.

"Ok, Ok. I'm calm now…But… Oh! My! God!" despite her previous attempts at calming herself she still ended by shouting the last few words in an excited squeal. She was quickly silenced by a glowing red Celena.

"Come on Millerna," Celena began in a whining voice, "can't you be a little more mature with this." Now at that comment Millerna had to stop herself.

"Now that was a first, Celena actually telling _me _to grow up. Wow, I must have really been acting immature."

"I'll ignore what you were trying to imply by that statement. And yes you are acting immature." Millerna smiled brightly.

"But come on, I think you can allow me to get away with it. I mean after learning what I learned can't you let me have my fun?"

"No." Celena's answer was quick and pointed. "Not when I'm the one being made fun of."

"Aww…You're so cute when you make your pouty embarrassed face."

"Whatever."

"Aww…Is Celena mad that I found out that she goes all Koo Koo for…"

"Millerna shut up!" Celena cut her off.

"Ok, ok, I'll stop I promise. I mean you already lost the bet I guess I shouldn't tease you."

"I didn't _lose_ the bet. You just figured it out, so technically the bet was _canceled_."

"What ever." Millerna said while rolling her eyes, "Let's forget about that subject for now k?" Celena perked up at that suggestion. Getting into a comfortable position Millerna started to change the subject. Smiling she asked…

"So…Celena, how long have you been interested in Pyrotechnics?" Celena's face glowed red once more, but this time in anger.

A moment later Yukari and Hitomi strolled up to their tree to greet their friends when they found the two bubbling blonds strewn over the bench, Celena on top trying hard to seemingly stuff Millerna's mouth with her own hair, they figured to try prevent the long haired blond from laughing. Needless to say her attempt was futile but it did make for a pretty awkward position.

The two didn't stop in their fun even with their friends' presence. And not too long later the last member Amano came to the scene. He too was stopped in his tracks by the display but instead of questioning their sanity he tilted his head slightly to get a better angle of the two's fight. He is, after all a teenage male no matter how mature he acted.

After noticing the abrupt stop in Amano's hello the play fighting blonds finally realized their position and jumped up quickly to fix themselves. Hitomi and Yukari shook their heads while taking a seat on the bench while Amano silent thanked God for small mercies.

…………………..


End file.
